The issues related to the development of a carbon film technology for micro
electronic applications are considered in this paper. To this end, carbon f
ilms deposited by plasma assisted chemical vapour deposition (PACVD) and by
magnetron sputtering of a graphite target are analysed comparatively. A gr
eat deal of information about them is shown to be gained by combining two a
nalytical methods. On the one hand, in situ X-ray reflectivity (XRR) allows
us to monitor, in real time: parameters such as thickness, density and sur
face roughness of the growing film. On the other hand, ex situ X-ray photoe
lectron spectroscopy (XPS) provides knowledge about the chemical compositio
n and the electronic structure of the film surface region. Combination of s
uch complementary analytical techniques results in a powerful tool for the
development of the required technology to enable the use of diamond-like ca
rbon (DLC) films in microelectronics devices. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A
. All rights reserved.